Goldeyes Sweep RedHawks & Dominate in Season Closer at Shaw Park

WINNIPEG, MB – The Winnipeg Goldeyes beat the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks 11-4 on Friday night – sweeping the series – in their final game at Shaw Park for the 2018 season.

In his rookie year, Goldeyes starting pitcher P. J. Browne earned his first professional win, allowing only three earned runs over five and a third innings. Browne struck out the first three batters to face him.

“P. J. did a great job pitching,” said veteran Goldeye Reggie Abercrombie. “It was a great win. The whole team came out here and did a great job. We did a good job of hitting good. Everybody got their job done and we came out with the win today.”

The Fish didn’t give up the lead once, scoring in seven consecutive innings. They opened scoring in the second, taking advantage of an error by RedHawks’ Jake Vieth to put runners on first and third. With two outs, Tyler Baker pulled through with a two-run double to left centrefield.

Josh Romanski started the bottom of the third with a leadoff single. Grant Heyman – who has now hit safely in nine straight games – followed with a base hit. With monster power, Josh Mazzola crushed a three-run home run out to left field. The homer was Mazzola’s 20thof the season, and the third time in four years that he’s reached 20+ home runs.

Trailing the RedHawks trailing by five heading in the fourth, Leobaldo Pina hit a leadoff double. He scored on a single from Jake Vieth, cutting the Goldeyes’ lead to four. The Fish responded quickly, with a single from Baker. Baker advanced to second on a walk drawn by Blake Adams, to third on a balk and scored on a sac fly by Romanski.

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Tucker Nathans drew a walk, stole to second and scored on a single by Josh McAdams to give the Fish a 7-1 lead.

The RedHawks cut the lead by two in the sixth, with a single from Maikol Gonzalez that scored Charlie Valerio and a double from Quinn Irey to score Jake Vieth. In the bottom half, Adams scored on a putout by Heyman.

In the seventh, RedHawks relief pitcher Anthony Pacillo loaded the bases with three walked batters. Baker drew the fourth walk of the inning, forcing home Mazzola, for his third RBI of the game. Adams followed up by beating a potential double play, scoring McAdams and extending the Goldeyes’ lead into double digits.

After Travis Ballew issued back-to-back walks on Gavin Stupienski and Abercrombie in the eighth, Stupienski scored on a fielder’s choice hit by Mazzola. The run was the team’s 11thof the night, and final one at Shaw Park for 2018.

The RedHawks added one more run in the ninth, with a single from Vieth to score Brennan Metzger.

RedHawks starting pitcher Reese Gregory took the loss for the team, allowing eight runs (six earned) over five and a third innings.

The Fish travel to Minnesota for their final series of the season, where they’ll face the St. Paul Saints beginning Saturday at 7:05pm. Left-hander Brennan Bernardino will start for the Goldeyes and face right-hander Jake Matthys for the Saints. All games can be listened to online, through cjnu.ca.